This movie was great, the plot was interesting and the quality of the film was good. I was glad when the "fat man" got more interested in the case than the enormous amount of food that was plunked down in front of him. His warm oatmeal sidekick was a little wishy washy but oh well, you can't have every thing. Enjoyed seeing a very young Rock Hudson, whose real first name was actually Roy, the character's name that he played in the Fat Man. I agree that this is one of the best private eye mystery movies I have seen in a long time and I had never seen this movie before so that made it all the more interesting.

I have been looking for this film for over thirty years. Have requested it many many times on Turner Classic Movies, but have not see it there yet, and they have some classics that I had seen there in the past, like, You Never Can Tell with Dick Powell. I was a big fan of the Fat Man radio show, tried never to miss any of them. I have heard that the Australians did a radio series of The Fat Man, but have never heard them. One thing to remember about The Fat Man, his fortune is DANGER . . .
To the Archive and the ones that got this motion picture here for me to download and see,
THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Well, the story is pretty linear, surprising events do not take place but the characters have a certain charm, even though their acting is a bit woody. Furthermore, it is hard to really identify with anyone beside the 'Fat Man', because no one else leaves a mark.

The scene with the kid and the ice-cream was funny ... but that was it basically. All other jokes are rather bland and too obvious to make one laugh.

Nice to watch though.

I never heard of the Fat Man before watching this movie (The radio show never made it´s way across the Atlantic Ocean) but I certainly will not forget him anymore. One reviewer seems to have the same associations as I have, Cannon + Nero Wolfe = Fat Man. Except that both cannot be imagined dancing which the Fat Man does quite well.

Good cast including Rock Hudson early in his career, good script.

The technical quality of this copy certainly is higher than the quality of the other upload of "The Fat Man".

Nicely shot mystery-noir, made more enjoyable by seeing Hudson, Meadows, & London early in their careers. And, how many movies do you get to see Emmett Kelly in & out of makeup! Fun diversion.

Very entertaining; worth a watch, especially if you're a "Fat Man" fan. The Fat Man on the radio was professed to weigh about 230 pounds, give or take, depending on the airing of the episodes. He looked closer to 300 in this movie. The eating scenes seemed a little much, given that the radio never emphasized his eating. But then, I didn't read Hammett's descriptions.

Interesting to see the other actors before they gained greater fame Julie London looked great - even Rock Hudson couldn't resist kissing her in one scene. ;o)

I kept wondering if "Shifty" (Teddy Hart) was played by Joe Pesci; quite a likeness.

Carefully produced, nicely directed and with a good performances from the cast, this is the best made detective mystery I've seen from among those here at IA. In the opening scene a dentist is murdered. It's made to look like a suicide and dental records for a man are taken by the murderer. Detective Runyon is brought in to find out who did it. To solve the crime, he decides to find out who that dental patient was. The story evolves quite naturally. The basic plot is an old standby still in use.

There's good suspense at first, but that disappears as Runyon talks with the people who knew the man and they tell their stories. These compelling vignettes are shown as flashbacks. The comedy relief throughout the movie seemed unnecessary as the story wasn't often grim, and without much in the way of suspense again until the end. Most of the humor came as ridicule of Runyon's obesity, humor which is not only passé, but in bad taste.

I got lulled into just watching the movie, didn't think to put the clues together, so I missed solving the crime before it was revealed. Rats. However, kudos to the director and screenwriter for making the movie so diverting.

I downloaded the 678MB AVI file. It was a fine copy.

Based on a Dashiell Hammett character, "The Fat Man" was a popular radio series on ABC starring J. Scott Smart. It ran from 1946 to 1951, the year in which this film was released. Smart again is in the title role, at the head of a good cast which includes Rock Hudson, Jayne Meadows, Emmett Kelly and Julie London (hubba hubba!). William Castle's crisp direction skillfully packs a hell of a lot of plot into just 77 minutes. Fast-paced with enough twists and turns to please who-done-it hounds - and of course there is Julie London to please us dirty old men. Thanks to uploader Moongleam for this complete print which is a significant improvement over the version which had been here at IA.

I've often wished "The Fat Mat" had become a B-feature film series like "The Falcon" or "The Saint," but by the '50s double features were slipping into history. By the early '60s B-features were all-but extinct.

RADIO SERIES: Twenty-nine episodes of the original radio series are available for listening here at IA, as part of the Old Time Radio Collection. http://www.archive.org/details/otr_fatman

or sumthin